Foreign Lilerature and Science. 393 



'& 



It would be interesting to the readers of this journal to be 

 able to compare with the above result, the cubic amount of 

 water which flows annually down the precipice of Niagara, 

 by actual measurements of the river at some convenient 

 place above the falls, and accurate calculations founded 

 upon them. An estimate might be formed of the whole mass 

 of Lake Erie ; and admitting that it received no supplies, 

 the time requisite to disembogue itself at the present rate 

 of discharge over the falls might tlius be approximated. 



36. Hospital of Mount St. Bernard. — It appears in a 

 "Notice or memoir upon the natural history of St. Ber- 

 nard," by the Pere Biselx, prior of the convent, that from 

 thirty to thirty-five thousand rations of food are annually 

 distributed to travellers of all conditions. The cold and 

 exposed situations which the benevolent inmates of that 

 great hospital voluntarily inhabit, subjects them to acute and 

 incurable rheumatisms, and obliges them when still young 

 to descend to the plains, and drag out a life of pain and dis- 

 tress. This evil is found to be susceptible of remedy by 

 such alterations of the edifice as modern science is compe- 

 tent to effect ; but their funds are exhausted in the relief 

 they extend to the pressing wants of travellers. To enable 

 them to accomplish those improvements so essential to their 

 own comfort, a subscription has been proposed, and De 

 CandoUe and Turretini, bankers of Geneva, have agreed to 

 become the depositaries of whatever may be offered for that 

 purpose. Their correspondents in London are P. L. Le 

 Cointe &; Co. and in Paris, Vassal h Co. Professor Pic- 

 tet and De Candolle, of Geneva, are associated wi'h the 

 bankers in the disposal of the funds. Bib. Univ. 



37. Extensive Draining. — The Prince De B. a very 

 rich landed proprietor in the government of Koursk in 

 Russia, had on his estate a marsh or swamp of 7800 acres, 

 which in the spring of the year became a lake, and pro- 

 duced absolutely nothing but reeds and rushes. In its driest 

 state neither man nor beast could cross it without hazard. 



In the course of his journies in other parts of Europe, 

 especially in England, the prince became satisfied that his 

 lands might be rendered much more productive. AnEng- 



